Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh argues a call with the side judge during the second quarter on Oct. 19, 2019. Joe Hermitt | jhermitt@pennlive.com
Jim Harbaugh is on record as supporting an expansion of the College Football Playoff to 16 teams.
But the Michigan football coach has a new idea, one that would lower that number to 11.
Yes, 11.
According to ESPN’s Heather Dinich, who surveyed the opinion of 62 college head coaches on the current four-team CFP model, here’s how Harbaugh (one of 30 coaches surveyed in favor of expansion) would do it:
-- Eliminating all conference title games, Harbaugh would take each Power-5 conference regular-season champion and the highest-ranked non-Power 5 team (Notre Dame included), ranking them 1-6.
-- Then, using the previous BCS computer model, determine the next five-highest ranked teams in the country, no matter their conference affiliation.
Here’s where things get a little confusing. Harbaugh’s plan would give the five highest-ranked teams, including the non-Power 5 team, a first-round bye, setting up three play-in games between the 6-11 teams.
Those first-round games would happen the first weekend in December, taking the place of the original conference championships, and determine a final eight. The quarterfinals would take place the second weekend in December, the quarterfinals the final week in December and the championship game the first week in January.
“You’d still have the same bowl structure as you have now, and teams that lost on Dec. 1, it’s like they would’ve been in a championship game and then they play in a bowl game,” Harbaugh told ESPN. “Nobody would play in 16 games.”
Which technically may not be true. According to Harbaugh’s bracket, provided to ESPN, a team that plays a 12-game regular-season schedule, qualifies for the 11-team playoff as a 6-11 seed and makes a run to the championship would, in fact, play 16 games.
Either way, it’s a unique idea. And Michigan, which has failed to qualify for the playoff in each of Harbaugh’s first four seasons in Ann Arbor, would have had a shot in 2018.
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